The elderly man fell from a tree in his native town in Ratnagiri, fracturing his leg in the process; his family had to spend Rs 10,000 just to ferry him to a Mumbai's KEM Hospital in an overnight ambulance

A 74-year-old Ratnagiri resident’s attempt to fulfil his grandchildren’s desire to eat jackfruit turned into a painful, and costly, affair after he fell 10 feet to the ground while picking the fruit from a tree. With his left leg fractured in the fall, his family had to spend Rs 10,000 just to bring him to Mumbai in an overnight ambulance.

In an attempt to pick a jackfruit from the tree to please his grandchildren, 74-year-old Manohar Surve took a nasty fall and fractured his left leg

Heavy dutyThe incident took place on Thursday at Bellare village in Ratnagiri, where Manohar Surve was entertaining his grandchildren, who were there for the summer vacation. When the children demanded a jackfruit from one of the trees in the backyard, the elderly Manohar lost no time in climbing a tree to fulfil their wish.

Perched atop the tree, he picked a jackfruit, only to find that it was too heavy. He lost his balance and came crashing down with the fruit, hurting his back and fracturing his left leg at the hip joint. Since Manohar lives in the village with his wife, their four sons rushed there from Mumbai after they were informed about the incident.

“Though he is old, he is used to climbing trees and doing all this work since it is a matter of routine for people in our village. But by the time we reached the village, his situation was critical, so we shifted him to a private hospital in the nearby town, Devrukh.

The doctors suggested we take him to Mumbai for better care. Hence we left the same night and reached KEM Hospital by Friday morning,” said Mohan, Manohar’s son. The family paid about Rs 10,000 for an overnight ambulance to ferry Manohar to the hospital in Parel, where he was shifted to the orthopaedic department.

Doctors checked his X-Ray and blood reports and said he would have to undergo surgery for the fracture that had left him bedridden. “There are no complications in the case besides the old age of the patient.

The treating doctors are conducting all the pre-surgery tests and will schedule the surgery accordingly,” said Avinash Supe, Dean of KEM Hospital, adding that Manohar’s advanced age would probably mean that his recovery would be slower.